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GEORGE BANCROFT. 



GEORGE BANCROFT, 



SAMUEL SWETT GKEEN 



1''K<JM Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Socikty, at the 
Semi-Ann UAL, Meeting, April 29, 1891. 



HVovcc^tcv, PiLSS-., HU Jf. ^. 

PRESS OF CHARLES HAMILTON, 
311 MAIN STKEET. 

1891. 



GEORGE BANCROFT. 



Geokge Bancroft, the historian of the United States, was 
chosen a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 
October, 1838. With that of Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, 
elected to membership at the same date, his name has for 
several years stood at the head of our list of living mem- 
bers. From 1877 to 1880, Mr. Bancroft was Secretary of 
Domestic Correspondence, and, since 1880, has been a 
Vice-President of the Society. At the. time of his death, 
he was our First Vice-President. It seems fitting that the 
death of Mr. Bancroft should be conmiemorated in our 
Proceedings by a somewhat extended notice. 
• George Bancroft was a son of Rev. Aaron Bancroft, D.D. 
(b. 1755, d. 1839), the first pastor of the Second Parish in 
the town of Worcester, Massachusetts, a position held by 
the latter until he died, and for a period of more than fifty 
years. George Bancroft's mother was Lucretia (Chandler) 
Bancroft (b. 1765, d. 1839), a daughter of the last Judge 
John Chandler, of Worcester. Aaron Bancroft was a man 
of vigorous mind, excellent scholarship and earnest spirit. 
He was one of the six persons who joined in a petition for 
the Act of Incorporation of this Society and became one of 
its earliest members. He was a Councillor of the Society 
from the date of its organization in 1812 to 1816, a Vice- 
President from 1816 to 1831, and a member of its Publica- 
tion Committee from 1815 to 1831. In 1807 he published 
a life of Washington, which had a large circulation and was 
reprinted in England. 

George Bancroft was born in Worcester, October 3, 
1800, in a house still standing on Salisbury street, which' 



was the second residence of his parents in Worcester. The 
house has been occupied for many years by Mr. John B. 
Pratt. 

Very little, naturally, is to l)e said about Bancroft's life 
in Worcester as he left the town to go to Phillips Academy, 
Exeter, N. H., when in his eleventh year and never re- 
turned there to live. It may not be beneath the dignity 
of this occasion, however, to repeat an anecdote which Mr. 
Bancroft, with modest pelf-depreciation, told to Hon. C. K. 
Tuckerman during a call which that gentleman made upon 
him towards the close of October, 1889. Mr. Tuckerman 
writes : "Taking it for granted that" Mr. Bancroft "might 
not after the lapse of so many years distinctly recall my 
identity, I began by reminding him as to who I was and 
when we had last met. He interrupted me with a vigorous 
* * * exclamation, that he not only remembered me per- 
fectly but that he rather thought he knew more of my fam- 
ily and their antecedents than I did myself. Thereupon he 
went back to the days of his boyhood in the town of Worces- 
ter, Massachusetts, and informed me that a certain cousin of 
mine, now some years deceased — who then dwelt there — 
had been his schoolmate and playmate. He, Mr. Bancroft, 
had greatly stood in awe of his schoolmate's mother, my 
aunt, who was a lady of great dignity, and most precise in 
her manners and ways of life. ' I was a wild boy,' con- 
tinued Bancroft, 'and your aunt did not like me. She was 
always fearful that I would get her son into bad ways, and 
still more alarmed lest I should some day be the cause of 
his being brought home dead. There was a river, or piece 
of water, near Worcester, where I used to beguile young 
Salisbury, and having constructed a rough sort of raft he 
and I would })ass a good deal of our playtime in aquatic 
amusements, not by any means unattended with danger. 
Madam's remonstrances were all in vain, and she was more 
and moi-c contirmed in the opinion that I was a "wild, bad 
boy." However, nothing serious, beyond an occasional 



5 

wetting, ever occurred, yet I never rose in her estimation, 
and a " wild boy" I continued to be up to manhood.' " ^ 

I presume that it is unnecessary to say that the compan- 
ion to whom Mr. Bancroft refers is our late President, the 
father of the gentleman who now presides over this Society. 

Young Bancroft was regarded as a promising scholar 
when he went to the academy at Exeter, where he was a 
beneticiary pupil. He remained there, without going home 
to spend his vacations, until he entered Harvard College in 
1813. He graduated from the latter institution, with the 
rank of second in his class, in 1817, when not yet seventeen 
years old. The late Stephen Salisbury was one of his 
classmates. Mr. Bancroft, at the time of his death, had 
been for some time the oldest living graduate of Harvard 
College. 

As a promising scholar, Bancroft was sent abroad to 
study in 1818. It is said to have been a purpose of the 
gentlemen who provided the means to enal)le him to go to 
Europe, to give him such an education that he would be 
prepared to occupy the chair of a professor in Harvard 
College when it might become necessary to seek somebody 
to till one. Mr. Bancroft entered the Univer&ity of Gottin- 
gen and received from that institution the degree of Ph.D. 
at the remarkably early age of less than twenty years. 
While at Gottingen, he studied German literature under 
Benecke ; French and Italian literature under Artaud and 
Bunsen ; Arabic, Hebrew and Scripture interpretation 
under Eichhorn ; Natural History under Blumenbach ; the 
antiquities and literature of Greece and Rome, and Greek 
philosophy under Dissen, an enthusiastic admirer of Plato ; 
and history under Planck and Heeren. Soon after receiving 
his degree at Gottingen, Mr. Bancroft went to Berlin where 
he was kindly received by Wilhelm von Humboldt, 
Varnhagen von Ense, Lappenberg and other distinguished 
scholars. He was a constant visitor at the house of 



1 Magazine of American History, March, 1891, page 230. 



Schleiermacher, and was also very kindly received ])y 
Savigny, chief of the law department of the university and 
one of the airiest jurists of Germany. At Berlin, Bancroft 
attended the lectures of Wolft', Schleiermacher and Hegel. 
Passing on to Heidell)erg in the spring of 1821, Mr. 
Bancroft spent several hours a day there studying with the 
historian Schlosscr. 

Before returning to America, he travelled on the conti- 
nent of Europe,' making the acquaintance of ]Manzoni at 
Milan, of Niehuhr at Rome, and of Benjamin Constant, 
Cousin, Alexander von Humboldt, and Lafayette at Paris. 
During his stay in Rome, he formed intimate relations with 
Chevalier Bunsen. These continued until the death of the 
latter.' While a student at G(')ttingen, Bancroft made the 
acquaintance of Goethe at Jena, and subsequently met him 
at Weimar. In May, 1822, he met Byron at Leghorn, and 
the next day, by invitation, visited him at Monte Nero, the 
residence of the poet at that time. 

Mr. Bancroft must have been very attractive as a young 
man to have secured the attentions which were shown to 
him by distinguished scholars and literary men in Europe. 
Dr. Cogswell, in a letter to Mrs. Prescott, of Boston, dated 
August 28, 1819, in speaking of his sorrow at parting with 
him, writes, "He is a most interesting youth and is to 
make one of our great men." 

Mr. Bancroft returned to the United States in 1822. He 
had prepared himself to enter the Christian ministry, and 
soon after coming home actually preached in his father's 
pulpit. The tradition in Worcester is that his manner on 
that occasion was regarded as somewhat artificial and as so 
dift'erent from that which was usual at the time in the pulpit 
as to prevent religious services as conducted by him from 
being wholly acceptable either to his father or his father's 



1 July 20, 1849, Bunsen writes : " For refioshment after this long day's work, 
1 visited, at six o'clock, my truly esteemed colleairue, Bancroft." — Memoirs, 
Vol. IL, p. 150. 



congregation. The sermon given in Worcester is said to 
have been an essay on love. 

In 1822, Mr. Bancroft became tutor of Greek in Harvard 
College, but withdrew from that position in 1823. Towards 
the close of the latter year, he joined Dr. Joseph G. Cogs- 
well in establishing a private school for boys, at Round Hill, 
Northampton. That school was meant to embody ideas 
which had been awakened by observation of institutions 
abroad. The aim of its projectors was to found a school in 
which instruction should be thorough and united with an 
abundance of exercise and recreation. It was intended, 
also, to maintain intimate relations between teachers and 
pupils.^ The school was for a time very successful. An 
excellent corps of teachers gave instruction and the boys 
were healthy and happy. The enterprise proved financially 
unsuccessful in a few years, however. "^ Mr. Bancroft with- 
drew from the school in 1830. Dr. Cogswell continued 
the undertaking for two years longer and then abandoned it 
with impaired health and a loss in money of $20,000. 

Before going to Round Hill, Mr. Bancroft published in 
Cambridge, in September, 1823, a small volume of poems. 
These were marked by smoothness of versification and 
felicity of expression rather than by the higher qualities of 
poetry, and it is understood that later in life the author did 
what he could to withdraw the volume containing them 
from circulation. Our venerable and accomplished associate, 

i"The school maybe described as aiming, above all, to make gentlemen.''^ 
* * "There was great attention paid to modern languages in the school, and 
of course, under Beck and Bode, * * there was no neglect of the classics. 
Indeed, there was nothing connected with the culture of the mind, or the care 
ai.d development of the body, or the elevation of the character, that was not 
contemplated by the founders of the Round Hill School "****" The 
scheme of the school was too comprehensive to be thorough in the elementary 
training." — Harvard lieijister, Vol. III., pp. 3-5. 

2 For an account of the School at Round Hill, see Memoir of Joseph G. 
Cogswell, by Miss Anna E. Tickuor (privately printed) ; "A Sheaf of Papers," 
by Thomas G. Appieton ; The Round Hill School, by Rev. Henry W. Bellows, 
D.D., New York, in the Harvard Ref/ister, Vol. \U. (1881), p. 3; and Recol- 
lections of Round Hill School, by GeorgeE. Ellis, in the Educational Review, 
April, 1N91. 



8 

Rev. Dr. Ellis, was a pupil of Mr. Bancroft at Round Hill, 
and remembers his teacher as a "somewhat dreamy and 
al)sent-minded scholar" and as showing the impulsiveness 
and effusiveness of manner which he retained throughout 
his life. He also recalls the fact that he read the manu- 
script while Mr. Bancroft corrected proof of his translation, 
published in 1824, of Heeren's Politics of Ancient Greece. 
Mr. Bancroft published in 1825, Jacobs's Latin Reader. 
Several editions of that work appeared. He early became 
a (contributor to the North American Revieiv, his first article 
in that periodical having come out in the numl)er bearing 
the date of October, 1823. From that time on, for many 
years, he wrote papers for that Review, on literary, histori- 
cal and financial subjects. 

Mr. Bancroft, as early as 1818, while a student at 
G«")ttingen, determined to devote himself to historical pur- 
suits. He began his great work on the history of the 
United States, at Northampton, and while there issued the 
first volume. The other nine volumes appeared at intervals 
until the publication of volume 10, in 1874. In 1876, the 
work was revised and issued as a centenary edition (6 vols., 
Boston). Volumes 11 and 12 were published first under 
the title of " History of the Formation of the Constitution of 
the United States" (New York, 1882). The last revised 
edition of the whole work appeared in six volumes (New 
York) in 1883-5. A variety of essays were %vritten by 
Mr. Bancroft. Some of these were collected in a volume 
of Literary and Historical Miscellanies in 1855. 

During most of his life, Mr. Bancroft belonged to the 
Democratic parly. In 1830, he was elected to the legisla- 
ture of Massachusetts but declined to take his seat, and the 
next year, although it was certain that he could be elected, 
declined a nomination to the Senate. 

In 1835, Mr. Bancroft moved to Springfield. While 
living there, he worked on his history and took part in 
political movements. In 1836, he was the Democratic 



candidate for Congress from the Springfield district, but 
was defeated at the polls. In 1838, he was appointed by 
President Van Bui-en, Collector of the Port of Boston, and 
remained in that position until 1841. The Democratic 
party in Massachusetts was small during Van Buren's 
administration, but it had among its adherents such well- 
known persons as Orestes A. Brownson, "then in the gall 
of radicalism and the bitterness of general dissatisfaction," 
Robert Rantoul, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mr. Bancroft. 
Brownson, Rantoul and Bancroft were doctrinaires. A 
Whig contemporary, in writing of the last-named, says : 

"I do not think that he much cared to deliver stump 
speeches ; but he had no choice. Every Democratic office- 
holder who could speak and would not speak, was made to 
speak. Mr. Hawthorne, who could no more speak than 
jump over a wide river, was of course excused. Mr. 
Bancroft brought the rhetoric of his history to the {)latform. 
He was ornate, gilded and occasionally tiaming. Whatever 
he might be discussing, — and people did not discuss much 
save the sub-treasury in those times, — he seldom deigned 
to descend from his stilts. He had a favorite way of begin- 
ning these election harangues. He would look with an 
expression of astonishment at the audience, and exclaim 
with the gesture of Hamlet at the first sight of the ghost, 
' This vast assemblage might well appall me ! ' This im- 
pressed those who had never heard it more than twice 
before, and it had the further eflfect of giving the audience 
aforesaid a good conceit of its own proportions. I have 
said that Mr. Bancroft could never get oft' his stilts, but 
occasionally he relaxed a little his stately dignity. He was 
speaking ,one night of the great Whig procession in Boston 
in 1840. It uudoul)tedl3' did rain while the AYhig army was 
marching to Bunker Hill, and Mr. Bancroft improved the 
circumstance with a sin-prising mi>fture of attitudinousness 
and familiarity. ' We appeal to Heaven,' he said, ' was writ- 
ten upon the impious banner. Heaven heard the appeal and 
sent down upon the throng the nastiest shower of the sea- 
son I' Mr. Bancroft's audience could understand this better 
than his long dissei'tations upon the progress of the Demo- 
cratic principle during the Eighteenth century in Europe 



10 

and America ; and us he was not averse to applause, he 
went l)ack to his Custom House contented, as he had good 
reason to be."* 

Mr. Bancroft performed the duties of Collector satisfacto- 
rily. In 1844, he was Democratic candidate for Governor 
of Massachusetts, but although polling an unusually large 
vote was defeated by George N. Briggs. 

In 1845, Mr. Bancroft became Secretary of the Navy 
under President Polk. Our venerable associate, Rev. Dr. 
Peabody, informs me that the late Robert Rantoul told him 
that Mr. Polk first appointed Bancroft Attorney-General, 
supposing him to be a lawyer. He had to tell the Presi- 
dent that he had been educated for the Church and not for 
the bar, whereupon he received the appointment of Secre- 
tary of the Navy. 

Our associate, Rev. Dr. Edward Everett Hale, has kindly 
put into my hands a record in manuscript of a conversation 
which he had with Mr. liancroft, January 14, 1888. An 
extract will show that Mr. Bancroft believed that he had 
much to do in securins' the nomination of Polk for the 
presidency. Dr. Hale writes: "He," Mr. Bancroft, 
"showed me the various details in the Democratic conven- 
tion. The first day. Van Buren led a little in the ballot. 
The Massachusetts delegation voted for him ; but gradually 
Van Buren lost and Cass gained. Still it was perfectly 
clear that Cass could not carr^' the State of New York," 
owing to Van Buren's opposition. "At the end of the 
day, Mr. Bancroft said this privately to the New York 
delegation. They said it was so, — that the whole thing 
would ))C lost before the people if Cass were to be nominated. 
Mr. Bancroft then went around and made arrangements 
with the diflerent delegations which resulted in the unani- 
mous nomination of Polk. He prided himself very much 
on this. He said Polk had by far the greatest executive 
capacity of any man he had ever known. He showed me 

1 Cougdou, Charles T. lleminiscences of a Journalist, p. G3. 



11 

in typewriter, Polk's diary of the four years of his presi- 
dency. He made entries every day." 

I make another interesting extract from Dr. Hale's 
record. Mr. Bancroft "said himself that he always hated 
slavery, that when he was nominated as the candidate for 
Secretary of the Navy, Senator Archer \yrote to ask if he 
were an anti-slavery man, and he said he was ; — that if he 
were to go through the Senate he would go erect, and not 
on his knees. He said that in the discussion, he was con- 
sistent in his view that he was a man who disliked slavery, 
but was honest in his dislike of it." 

While Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Bancroft's administra- 
tion of affairs was marked by rigid economy. It was ren- 
dered memorable by the establishment, mainly through his 
efforts, of the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Mr. Bancroft 
gave the order to the commander of our squadron oil' Cali- 
fornia to take possession of that State in the event of war 
between the United States and Mexico. The order was 
executed while he was still Secretary. While acting for a 
month as Secretary of War, Mr. Bancroft gave the order to 
General Taylor to march into Texas. In September, 184(>, 
he was transferred from the Cabinet of Mr. Polk to the 
position of Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain. 
While in London, he negotiated a postal treaty between 
England and the United States which was duly ratified by 
both governments. Of his social position in England, our 
distinguished associate, Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, writes, 
in speaking of a visit of his own to that country, " Many 
letters from Webster and Everett had given me access to 
all that was highest and best in the London life of that 
period, but I met him" (Bancroft) "everywhere, and wit- 
nessed the high estimation in which he was held by literary 
men like Rogers and Hallam and Alison and Milman and 
Lord Mahon, and by statesmen like Peel, Palmerston and 
Russell." I 

1 Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society (meeting held February 
12, 1891), p. 302. 



12 

Mr. Bancroft availed himself during his sta}^ abroad of 
the opportunity afforded him to add largely to his collection 
of manuscripts, by making lil)eral extracts from the public 
archives of both England and France, which were freely 
thrown open to him for that purpose, as were also the pri- 
vate collections of many persons. The fruits of such labors 
are visible in his library in two hundred handsomely bound 
folio and quarto volumes of manuscripts. Upon his return 
to the United States in 1849, Mr. Bancroft took up his 
residence in New York, thus severing his connection for 
the rest of his life with his native State of Massachusetts.^ 
Dr. Ellis, in an address before the Massachusetts Historical 
Society made in Boston after Mr. Bancroft's death, says: 
"The elders here will remember the social and professional 
alienations and the political animosities which led him to 
change his residence to New York."^ 

In considering the severe strictures passed upon Mr. 
Bancroft during the years of active political life of which 
we have spoken, it is but fair to presume that a large por- 
tion of them at least were merely the expression of strong 
political feeling on the part of opponents, and of the impa- 
tience which is often shown by persons of social position 
and wealth with views such as those put forth by Mr. 
Bancroft and his associates in the earlier portion of his 
political life. One thing is certain, namely, that using the 
terra democrat in a large and not a party sense, Mr. 
Bancroft was a hearty democrat. The fact that he really 
believed in the wisdom of the people as opposed to classes 
was one of his leading qualifications for writing sympatheti- 
cally the history of the popular movement which led to the 
foundation of the United States, and which is now at the 
bottom of the administration of its affairs. 

After his return from Great Britain, Mr. Bancroft spent 
most of his time for many years in working on his history 



1 He (lied while a resident of the State of Rhode Island. 
•^ Proceedings (February 12. 1891), p. 298. 



13 

of the United States. During the Civil War, he was a warm 
supporter of the cause of the Union and acted with the 
Republican party. In February, 18(ifi, he was selected by 
Congress to pronounce a eulogy on President Lincoln. In 
1867, he was appointed ]Minister to Prussia, being after- 
wards successively accredited to the North-German confed- 
eration and the German Empire. While in Berlin, he 
rendered valuable service in securing for Germans who had 
become naturalized citizens of the United States a recogni- 
tion of their right to change their allegiance from their own 
country to that of their adoption. Indirectly the action 
obtained by Mr. Bancroft from Prussia and the other Ger- 
man States led to similar action on the part of Great 
Britain respecting British subjects who had become natur- 
alized citizens of this country. Mr. Bancroft, while in 
Germany, also rendered very powerful aid in seconding the 
efforts of our government in the negotiations with Great 
Britain which ended successfully in the establishment of 
our position regarding the Northwestern boundary of the 
United States, which had been defined whi-le he was a 
member of Mr. Polk's cabinet. Mr. Bancroft's mission to 
the German Empire ended at his own request in 1874. At 
that date, he returned home, and has since resided in 
Washington in winter and in Newport, R. I., in summer. 

A few years ago, Mr. Bancroft printed a pamphlet which 
contained a review and searching criticism of the decision 
of the Supreme Court of the United States in the celebrated 
legal-tender case. Still more recently, he published a life 
of Martin Van Buren, which had been prepared during the 
life of the subject of the biography, but kept in manuscript. 
The work is laudatory rather than critical, and has been 
regarded in the light of a campaign document instead of a 
serious biography. For a list of the minor works of Mr. 
Bancroft reference is made to the sketch of his life by the 
late S. Austin Allibone, in Appleton's Cyclopaedia of Amer- 
ican Biography. 



u 

Mr. Bancroft's health has evidently been failing for 
sevcnil years. He has enjoyed what Mr. Higginson has 
happily termed an "inexhaustible old age." In May, 1882, 
when still very vigorous, he wrote to Mr. Allibone "I was 
trained to look upon life here as a season for labor. Being 
more than fourscore years old I know the time foi- my re- 
lease will soon come. Conscious of being near the shore 
of eternity, I await without impatience and without dread 
the beckoning of the hand which will summon me to i-est." ^ 
Four years after writing that letter, Mr. Bancroft pre- 
sided at the meetings of the American Historical Associa- 
tion in AVashington. All the members present were 
impressed with the belief that at that time, the spring of 
188(3, he was in full possession of his mental powers, and 
that his manner and action as President of the Association 
showed his accustomed vigor and force of character. 

During September of the same year, Mr. Bancroft visited 
Worcester after an al)sence of forty years. At that time, 
also, he displayed mental and bodily activity such as usu- 
ally belong only to a young man. It fell to the lot of the 
writer of the present notice to act as his guide while in 
Worcester. During the afternoon, he appeared unexpect- 
edly at the Free Public Library, accompanied by his 
faithful German man-servant. I recognized him and 
greeted him heartily. He asked to be shown over the 
building. Thinking to spare him fatigue I went with 
him through the lower rooms, l)ut soon tinding that he 
wished to see everything conducted him from attic to base- 
ment. There was a meeting of the Council of this Society 
on the day chosen by Mr. Bancroft for his visit to Worces- 
ter. He had selected the day with reference to attending 
that meeting. Before he had finished examining the library 
building and its contents, the time had come for the meet- 
ing and he invited me to go to it with him in his carriage. 

1 Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, article "Bancroft, George." 
volume I., p. 154. 



15 

As wc passed along Main Street I pointed out to him the 
house in which his father last lived and died, and other old 
landmarks. He showed great interest. Reaching the hall 
of this Society he was greeted most cordially by the other 
members of the Coun(;il and remained during the meeting. 
On coming out I asked his servant where his carriage was. 
He said that Mr. Bancroft preferred to walk, and so two or 
three members of the Council and the Librarian walked 
with him to the Bay State House where he was staying. 
As soon as he got out of the door of the hall he assumed an 
attitude, and pointing to a spot on Court Hill directly in 
front, exclaimed, "I saw a man in the pillory there when I 
was a boy. He had uttered some blasphemous words and 
was punished in that way." He was in a cheerful, playful 
mood and showed much enthusiasm as the houses of Isaiah 
Th(mias and other okl residents, and the site of the second 
church occupied by his father were passed, and recalled 
reminiscences of his boyhood. He had accepted an invi- 
tation of mine to attend in the evening a session of the 
Worcester County Musical Association which is held in 
Worcester every autumn. Promptly at the time set for 
going he was ready and we went to Mechanics Hall together. 
Seats in the centre of the front row in the west gallery had 
been assioned to us. The oratorio of the evening' was Ai'- 
minius. Mr. Bancroft listened to it with attention and enjoy- 
ment. At the close of one of the parts, in accordance with an 
arrangement previously made, our associate, Hon. Edward 
L. Davis, went upon the platform and announced to the au- 
dience that Mr. Bancroft was in the building. Anxious to 
do him honor everybody rose and turned around. Mr. 
Bancroft acknowledged the attention by rising and bowing. 
It is interesting to note that although he had stayed away 
from Worcester for forty years, nevertheless he never lost an 
opportunity to inquire about the i)lacc and its old residents, 
and showed interest in the city by giving to it $10,000 for 
the establishment of the Aaron and Lucrctia Bancroft 



16 

scholarship in the name of his father and mother, for the 
education in college or elsewhere of some young person,' 
and also l)y selecting it as the |)lace of burial for his second 
wife, a child and himself. An incident occurred in Mechan- 
ics Hall which does not seem too trivial to mention because 
it illustrates admirably the manner of Mr. Bancroft. Mr. 
Davis wished to have his elder daughter introduced to the 
distinguished guest. I introduced her as Miss Lillie Davis. 
"Ah," said Mr. Bancroft instantly, "Lilly! So called be- 
cause straight as a lily, and I have no doubt, because pure 
as a lily." 

Before leaving Mr. Bancroft for the night, I arranged to 
meet liim the next morning at 7 o'clock and act as his guide 
in a drive about Worcester. Punctually at the hour 
appointed we started. He was much impressed by the 
beauty of the city, and expressed himself enthusiastically 
about it. He was reminded continually of incidents of his 
life here in childhood. In passing the first building occu- 
pied by the religious society to which his father minis- 
tered, still standing on Summer street, or Back street as 
it was formerly called, he spoke of his father's old horse 
which on coming down Salisbury street after reaching 
Lincoln square, on week days would invariably turn up 
Main street, but on Sunday as invariably turn up Back 
street. He was reminded, too, of a scene in church one 
Sunday. A boy who was a servant of Dr. Bancroft sat in 
one of the galleries. There was considerable noise in the 
galler}' on the occasion referred to, and Dr. Bancroft looked 
u}) sternly towards the quarter where the disturbance 
seemed to be, jind his servant thought that he was looking 
reprovingly at him. He was so frightened that oblivious of 
the proprieties of times of worship) he cried out aloud, "It 
wasn't I, it was another boy." Mr. Bancroft wished to call 
on Senator Hoar and in troing to his house while riding 



1 Spc Proccedinjjf.s of the Americiin Aiitiqiiariiin Societj' for April, 1SS3, pj). 
317 and ;?18, for the letter of Mr. Bancroft, in wbich be proposed to establish 
the scholarship. 



17 

along Lincoln street, just as we reached the site of the old 
Lincoln mansion, I remember that he repeated an anecdote 
of Levi Lincoln, Senior, who had been Attorney-General 
of the United States during the presidency of Thomas 
Jefferson. It must be remembered that Mr. Lincoln be- 
came nearly blind in the latter portion of his life. "Riding 
along Lincoln street one day," said Mr. Bancroft, "Mr. 
Lincoln met a man driving a large flock of geese. In con- 
sequence of the dimness of his sight he mistook the geese 
for children and threw out of the carriage a handful of small 
coin, saying, 'Bless you, my children.'" We continued 
our drive until it was time for Mr. Bancroft to take the cars 
to return to Newport, and then drove to the railway station. 
I expressed the hope, in parting, that he would soon re-visit 
Worcester, but he spoke of his age and gave me to under- 
stand that it was unlikely that he should be able to do so. 
Soon after his visit to Worcester, Mr. Bancroft began to 
fail and during the last few years of his life he was able to 
do but little work. Our honored and loved associate, Mr. 
Hoar, visited Mr. Bancroft in the evening of the last 
Sunday in Decemlier, 1890. " He was sitting," writes Mr. 
Hoar, "in his library up-stairs. He received me in his 
usual emphatic manner, taking both my hands and saying 
' My dear friend, how glad I am to see you.' He was alone. 
He evidently knew me when I went in, and inquired about 
Worcester, as he commonly did, and expressed his amaze- 
ment at its remarkable growth. I stayed with him twenty 
or thirty minutes. The topics of our conversation were, I 
believe, suggested by me, and the Avhole conversation was 
one which gave evidence of full understanding on his part 
of what he was talking about. It was not merely an old 
man's memory of the past, but fresh and vigorous thought 
on new topics which were suggested to him in the course 
of the conversation. I think he exhibited a quickness and 
vigor of thought and intelligence, and spoke with a beauty 
of diction that no man I know could have surpassed. * * * 



18 

I told his son about this conversation the day after Mr. 
Bancroft's death. He said tliat the presence of a visitor 
acted in this way as a stimuhint, hut that he had not hitely 
shown such intelligence in the family, but seemed lost and 
feeble." 

In the course of his conversation with Mr. Hoar he said 
"that his own inclination towards history, he thought, was 
due very much to the example of his father. He said his 
father would have been a very eminent historian, if he had 
had material at his command, and that he had a remarkably 
judicial mind." "He spoke of the clergymen, especially of 
the Uuitarian clergymen, so many of whom belonged to 
Harvard in his time. He said he had little sympathy for 
the Unitarianism of his day, for its theology no, for its 
spiritualism yes." "He asked about the Election Bill pend- 
inof in the Senate." Before the close of the conversation, 
Mr. Bancroft seemed to lose the control of his faculties 
which he showed in the beginning, and relapsed into forget- 
fulness. The remark made by Mr. Bancroft about the 
Unitarianism of his day, and the curiosity which I had heard 
expressed by several persons to know what his denomina- 
tional preferences were, led me to write to Rev. Rush R. 
Shippen, of Washington, to learn what he knew about the 
matter. There is of course comparatively little significance 
to-day in the denominational connections of men, those 
connections are so commonly determined by social consid- 
erations and questions of policy, and so many thinkers, 
to-day, while retaining a connection with churches have 
come to believe that little can be found out about the theo- 
logical and philosophical questions which have caused 
divisions among men. Still it is proper enough to satisfy 
curiosity which is natural and not obtrusive. Mr. Shippen 
writes, "At the dedication of All Souls Church" (a Unita- 
rian Church), "January, 1878, Mrs. Bancroft took a pew. 
The trustees, by a custom then adopted, placed upon the 
end arm of the pew, by the aisle, a silvered plate with her 



19 

name inscribed on it. Upon seeing this, Mr. Bancroft liad 
it removed and his own name sulistituted, and it has so re- 
mained till the present time. He has held the pew, paying 
rent, though he rarely occupied it. Mr. Bancroft has been 
in his pew in our church a few times, but not often. T have 
not supposed that he went elsewhere. He has always re- 
ceived me graciously, but my calls have not been frequent or 
intimate. On one occasion he said to me with his quick, 
emphatic way, 'I am not an Episcopalian ! I am a Congre- 
gationalist !' He repeated it as if to give emphasis, 'I am 
not an Episcopalian.' However, we never talked theology, 
and my impression is that Mr. Bancroft cared little about 
it." It has been thought by many persons that twenty or 
thirty years ago Mr. Bancroft expressed in a public address 
a belief in the doctrine of the Trinity. Whether this was 
so or not I judge from what I hear of conversations had 
with him during the later years of his mental vigor that he 
probably held what would be regarded generally as very 
liroad and radical views in respect to questions of theology. 

Mr. Bancroft died January 17, 1891, and his remains 
were at once brought to Worcester and buried in his lot in 
the Rural Cemetery. Mr. Bancroft married in 1827, Miss 
Sarah H. Dwight. She died June 26, 1837. In the fol- 
lowing year, he married Mrs. Elizabeth (Davis) Bliss, who 
died a few years ago. Two sons by the first marriage sur- 
vive their father, namely, John Chandler (H. C, 1854), 
and George (H. C, 1856). The latter has lived for a long 
time in Europe. Mr. Bancroft was a member of numerous 
learned societies. It is only necessary to state here that he 
was a correspondent of the French Institute, and of the 
Royal Academy of Berlin. Besides receiving other degrees 
he was made a D.C.L., at Oxford in 1849, and a Doctor 
Juris by the University of Bonn in 1868. In Septeml)er, 
1870, he celebrated at r>erlin the fiftieth anniversary of re- 
ceiving the degree of Ph.D., at Gottingen. 

George Bancroft was a remarkable man and his career 



20 

was long, everftful and brilliant. It lias fallen to the lot of 
few men to he so successful. Eai-ly in life he began a great 
work and he lived long enough to finish it and to enjoy the 
consciousness of large accomplishment and the satisfaction 
of havinjr his fellow-men reo;ard the work he had done as 
of great importance. A man of unusual mental powers 
he made the most of very exceptional opportunities of 
acquiring knowledge. He chose his life-work when a 
young man and carried it on almost to the end of life 
with perfect system and great laboriousness. Seeing early 
in life the value of exercise and recreation, and being 
naturally very social, while he worked hard for many hours 
every day he never allowed anythihg to interfere with daily 
exercise and social intercourse. His success in life was 
largely owing to these practices. 

Beginning early in life to make acquaintances we have 
found him associating in his student days with the principal 
scholars of Germany, France and Italy, and with such men 
of literary distinction as Goethe an^ Byron. From the time 
that he entered Polk's cabinet to the end of his life, he 
appears as the companion of the great men of the world. 
I have quoted the words of Mr. Winthrop to show how he 
was received by the statesmen and historians of Great 
Britain when he represented this country at the Court 
of St. James. We learn, too, that, while in England he 
used to have long conversations with Albert, the Prince 
Consort, in the German language, on literary and public 
questions.' Later, in Germany, he enjoyed rare social 
distinction. He was intimate with Bismarck, who wel- 
comed him (a rare event in his intercourse with men) to 
familiar conversation in his own home. The em})cror 
Wilhelm I. was strongly drawn towards him. So, too, was 
Friedrich ; and the present emperor had a wreath placed 
upon the casket which contained his remains at the funeral 
services in Washington. For many years both in Washing- 

1 Magazine of American History, March, 1891, p. 229. 



21 

ton iind Newport, he has been the central figure in society. 
No man, American or foreigner, seemed to feel that he had 
seen either place if he had not been introduced to Mr. 
Bancroft, or at least seen him. Surely if the knowledge 
that he has performed a w«ll-appreciated and great work 
and the undoubted assurance of being the cynosure of great 
men and of women of social eminence on l)oth continents can 
make a man happy, Mr. Bancroft should have been happy. 
Whether he was so or not, he was one of the most success- 
ful of men, judging things from a worldly point of view. 
He had decided peculiarities in society ; was regarded as 
artificial, and not only as phiyful but as frivolous. Still, in 
England, Germany and America his eccentricities were 
overlooked, for they were overshadowed by the conviction 
that he was distinguished by intellectuality and great attain- 
ments. 

Mr. Bancroft was a successful and highly honored diplo- 
matist ; he was also a great social success. What shall be 
said of his monumental work, the History of the United 
States? Our associate, Mr. Robert C. Winthrop, has lately 
said that -'in all its varied editions" it "will always be re- 
ceived and recognized as the leading authority in American 
History for the period which it includes." As the different 
volumes of the work appeared, while many of his state- 
ments and estimates of men were criticised, often severely, 
the results of his labors received the highest commendation 
from many of the best critical journals in this country and 
abroad, and unstinted praise from such men as Edward 
Everett, William H. Prescott and George Ripley in this 
country, and Professor Heeren, Baron Bunsen and Freder- 
ick von Raumer in Germany. The methods of writing 
history have changed somewhat in late years, and while 
]Mr. Bancroft's work seems likely to remain as of standard 
importance it is open to criticism. I presume that I should 
not differ much from the estimate of it given by our associ- 
ate, Mr. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, in the account 



22 

which he gave of it in the Mew York Evening Post of 
Jtinuary 19, 1891, aud in the Nation of a few days later. 
Mr. Higginson speaks with large knowledge of the subject 
and evidently aims to be foir. The criticism has struck 
somewhat harshly upon the ears of some of Mr. Bancroft's 
friends, coming as it did so soon after the great man's 
death, and following the adoration which had latterly been 
bestowed upon him. But it has long been known that 
while the history possesses remarkable excellencies, it has, 
like most great creations, defects which it is important 
should receive careful consideration. I wish only to add 
that in view of the facts that INIr. Bancroft made very large 
use of manuscript sources and rare l)ooks in the preparation 
of his history, and that his quotations were made freely 
rather than with verbal exactness and completeness, it is 
very important that large portions if not the whole of his 
very valuable private library should become the property 
of the United States government, or of some public institu- 
tion in one of our large cities where the great collection 
of manuscripts and other material used in the composition 
of his history may be easily consulted for purposes of 
verification and additional information. 



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